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Excluding containers in jam making process

December 13, 2013

Georgelin is a medium-sized jam producer located in Virazeil in the South west of France. Their infrastructure consists of four main cooking containers that send jam to conditioning machines via special transfer containers. They transfer a large variety of jams, with different viscosities and sizes of particles. Every manufacturing station is agitated and heated at a temperature of + 100°C to provide good homogeneity of the material and a low viscosity for transfer operations.

Georgelin was looking for a direct transfer solution from each cooking container to the conditioning machine. They wanted to exclude the container transfer from the process, because it took a lot of time to fill and empty the containers and it was not easy to clean them between two aromas of fruit. It also caused a loss of jam due to the different viscosities between two types of fruit.

A faster transfer saves time and material

Enerfluid SA, a local Graco distributor, made a few tests and selected the Graco SaniForce 3150 HS stand-mounted high-sanitary diaphragm pump for its technical capabilities. The pump is faster, saves time and has less material loss. The tri clamps are easy to handle and dismantle and the EPDM over-molded diaphragms were chosen for their resistance to high temperatures and their smooth surface.

The customer’s requirements were met: a flow of 300 liters per minute at 3 bar air pressure to push the jam to a height of about 3 meters and a total distance of 4-5 m.

Increased safety for workers

Georgelin successfully used the same installation for more viscous apricot jam. The pump installation is simple to use manually and, thanks to the use of compressed air, can be safely operated intermittently and is quick to dismantle if necessary.

The workers’ safety has increased as the new installation prevents a wet surface in the workshop. When using the transfer containers, these had to be washed and flushed, causing a wet floor, thus generating risks for operators. Now by using the pumps, the containers don’t need to rinsed, or are rinsed internally, without spillage.